Author's Note: Welcome to chapter 3! My my we certainly have been trucking through the chapters these past few days! This chapter brought you by me, Hitori Kennin!
Disclaimer: We do not own Resident Evil, Halo, or any of the other games referenced in this fiction. We are making no profit from this story as it is purely a fun, fictional story!
Ben and AJ drove the dark streets for the upside of a half an hour searching for Mid's last known address, the dark hours bringing with them a lack of people out and about. They eventually came to the apartment complex that supposedly housed their former teammate. To their dismay the building was fenced off and marked as condemned.
"Aw crap." AJ said giving the steering wheel a firm pound.
"What do we do now? Do you have any more leads?" Ben questioned after giving a heavy sigh of his own.
AJ pondered the question for a moment before he shut off the jeep and stepped outside. He walked up to the fence and examined the condemned building notice; the date it was served was only a month ago.
"This building was shut down a little over a month ago." AJ said turning to face Ben whom had also exited the jeep. "If Mid was still living here when the place got shut down then chances are he may still be at the same job."
"Do you actually know where he works?" asked Ben as he leaned on the jeep crossing his arms.
"Yes I do, I just figured that it would be easier to catch him at home. After all it is, like what… 4:30 in the morning?" he replied with a shrug. "The store opens at 7am so we have a bit of waiting to do, but definitely not enough time to go back and rest a while." AJ said more to himself than anything, he had been trying to come up with a way to pass the time as there was likely nothing to do at 4:30am.
"Then maybe the first thing we should do is figure out how to keep ourselves up." Ben suggested.
AJ put on a mock expression of shock. "Ben! I'm a gamer don't ya know that a gamer is always prepared with liquid energy!?!" He unlocked the jeep and had Ben stand aside so he could open the passenger door. Once inside AJ opened the glove compartment and inside there was some sort of contraption attached to three different cans of energy drinks: A Monster, a Full Throttle, and a Red Bull. He hit the button on the contraption and fluid from all three cans poured into two separate bottles.
AJ pulled out the concoctions and held one out for Ben. "I call it 'Gamer a la Pwnage'" he said with a grin.
"And they say I'm the crazy one." Ben said shaking his head after taking the bottle.
"They say that about all the geniuses." AJ said with a shrug before he downed his whole gamer cocktail in one swig.
When both of them had finished their drinks, AJ hopped back into the driver seat and Ben back into the passenger seat.
"Hey Ben?" AJ said turning to Ben.
"Yeah?" Ben replied.
"You wanna drive?" AJ offered with a smile.
"REALLY!?" Ben's eyes it up as an expectant look played across his face.
"Well too bad!" AJ said laughing as he started up the jeep and threw it into drive.
Ben pouted while AJ laughed at his own joke. It was fun to be the one in the driver seat for once.
"Here I got something that will make you feel better." AJ said as he reached for the 'Play CD' button on the old jeep CD player. He hit the button and the track counter clicked to one and started playing.
"Dark in the city night is a wire…" the lyrics played over the speakers. Ben and AJ both smiled as they knew the song all too well: Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran.
They played the song several times over before they reached the store that Mid worked at, it turned out to be a toy store. They found it odd however as Mid didn't really seem the type to work retail, especially retail involving children.
"It's only 5:02, we have about two hours before the store opens." Ben said looking at the clock on the radio.
"Well then, I guess all we can do now is wait" AJ said with a sigh. He turned up the radio and they would both just sit there waiting. Despite the immense amount of energy they had recently consumed, in true gamer form energy drinks were no longer as effective as they used to be. Soon both of them would pass out in their seats.
AJ squirmed and writhed as his dreams were tainted by nightmare. Horribly realistic images of grotesque creatures hacking and slashing at him among the dark hallways of some steel leviathan. It seemed to last forever, all the hacking and slashing. As fast as it all had started, it all went blank; a single phrase echoed through the darkness. 'A test of fate is never to be unexpected…' it cooed.
Meanwhile, Ben's own imagination ran rampant as his dreams were filled with images of demons and flying severed heads. He would fight with them endlessly as he meandered his way through the maze-like research facility.
AJ was shaken from his nightmare as his body gave a hard spasm and his head slipped down the window. Immediately wide awake, his optics flicked over to been who was also asleep. AJ's gaze then drifted to the clock, it read 8:23am.
"Ben, wake up we gotta go see if Mid is here" AJ said shaking Ben by the shoulder. Ben simply murmured something and turned over in his sleep. "Ben, c'mon get up!" AJ said louder and gave him a harder shake, this time it seemed to be a little bit more effective.
"Eat this mega-demon!!" Ben yelled as he threw a punch that connected directly to AJ's jaw. AJ reeled back until he hit his side of the car. Ben blinked once before he realized he was no longer in la-la land.
"Ben… what the FUCK are you dreaming about man?! No more caffeine before bed." AJ yelled while rubbing his jaw. "So if you're done sucker punching your friends, shall we go get Mid?"
"Uh… yeah sorry." Ben said rubbing the back of his head with an apologetic smile.
The both of them exited the jeep and headed inside the toy store. They thought they were going to have a hard time finding Mid in such a large store, they would have to ask around and if he was off try and find where he lived. Much to their surprise, Mid was the first person they saw when they walked in… and they couldn't help but laugh.
"Buy one item in value of twenty-five dollars or greater, get another for fifty percent off." Came the unenthusiastic tone on Mid dressed in a giant teddy bear outfit –the only visibly human characteristic being his face.
"Mommy look at the giant teddy bear!" exclaimed a little blond girl holding her mother's hand.
"I'm not really a teddy bear, see?" Mid said pointing to his face.
"But you still look like a teddy bear!" the girl exclaimed gleefully as she skipped along beside her mother further into the store; the look on Mid's face was one of utter disgust
At this point AJ and Ben were attracting a significant amount of attention as they were quite literally rolling on the floor with laughter.
"Oh yeah laugh it up wise guys" Mid said, obviously not recognizing his two former teammates. AJ was just getting off of the floor as been was still laughing too hard to uncurl from fetal position.
"Ah Mid, I know it warms your stuffing to see us again" AJ said, the hints of laughter still evident in his tone.
"AJ? Ben?" All of Mid's anger drifted away on a note of surprise. It was quite evident that these were the last two people he expected to see today.
"Yep, we came here to find you!" answered Ben as he had finally gotten up off the floor and was now standing beside AJ.
"Find me, why?" asked Mid, confusion spread across his features.
"Because I decided it's time to revive Team Light. We've all hit pretty bad times, and I know I speak for Ben and I when I say we have not been happy since the Team broke up. Sure things were crazy and things sometimes got extremely over-adventurous, but we always ended up having fun not to mention a tight knit group of friends. You can stay here playing teddy bear dress-up or you can come back and be part of the team again." He explained to Mid.
"Well… how would we afford the apartment if I quit my job?" Mid questioned, a bit skeptical about the quite idealistic plan.
"I still get checks from the military; we can live off of that until you find a better job or at least some other source of cash" AJ explained with a slight shrug. To him spending money was no big deal, because happiness did not come from money, it came from having the team back together again.
"Alright, let's get the hell out of here" Mid said sounding very relieved. "I'm going to turn in this costume and then go tell my boss I quit." Mid told them before he turned around and headed toward the employee offices.
Meanwhile AJ and Ben waited outside by the jeep, the both of them simply leaning against the vehicle as they waited for their teammate to arrive. About ten minutes later Mid emerged from the building, no longer clad in his teddy bear costume.
"Who's jeep is this?" Mid asked them, slightly puzzled.
"Mine." AJ replied simply.
"Where's the Ben-mobile?" he asked looking over to Ben. Ben looked down and shook his head as if he had lost a close relative.
"I see…" Mid replied. All three of them had a moment of silence for Ben's fallen vehicle.
All three of them would clamber into the jeep and AJ started the car. Ben rode shotgun while Mid sat in the back behind Ben.
"So where to now?" asked Mid from the back.
"We're going to see if we can get John and Guillermo" replied AJ as he put the Jeep in drive and pulled out of the parking spot.
"Do you know where they live?" Ben asked the question that had also been next on Mid's list.
"No, but I do know where they work. I also happen to know that they will both be there today" AJ answered, a slight smirk on his face.
"How do you know they'll be there?" Mid asked, more than a little curious as to why he was smirking so fiendishly.
"Oh just pulled a few strings, and did some persuading." He shrugged the question off some, and something told them it was best just to leave it at that. What AJ did just worked, it was usually better not to know the how.
After about ten minutes of driving the jeep ferrying Team Light about the city pulled into the parking lot of the Marketplace Mall. Finding a relatively close parking place, AJ cut the wheel and brought them into the space before jamming the stick into park. It did not take them too long to make their way into the mall and toward their destination.
"So where is it that John and Guillermo work again?" Ben asked AJ as they passed through the crowds roving the mall.
"Right up here" AJ said as they came to a GameStop store that sat on the corner of where two mall wings met. Entering the store, Ben and Mid followed AJ as he approached the counter. AJ could already tell that the two guys behind the counter were John and Guillermo. They were busy talking too busy talking to one another to notice them enter the store.
"Hey um, do you guys have any copies of Final Fantasy XIII left?" AJ asked trying to sound very nerdy.
Guillermo snapped around to yell at what the group had to assume was the ten thousandth person to ask him today.
"How many times do I have to tell you people!?! We're out! We've been out for several days! There's a sign outside that says we're out!!" Guillermo yelled.
AJ simply stood there for a few moments, a big dumb grin plastered on his face. Ben and Mid stood next to him on his left. It didn't take long for it to click as realization spread across his features.
"What are you guys doing here?!" John exclaimed.
"We're here because we're reviving Team Light. All of us have fallen into pretty hard times without it. Things back then may have gotten crazy from time to time, but we all had a close circle of friends to depend upon through those tough times. We want you guys to come back to the team." Ben explained.
"I can support the apartment costs for our old place long enough for you guys to get new jobs or find some source of income." AJ added.
Some guy from the back of the store wandered up to the counter, a scrawny freckle-faced man complete with two inch thick glasses and pocket protector.
"Do you have any copies of Final Fantasy XIII left?" he inquired, spraying the group as he spoke.
"John, I think I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill him John." Guillermo said clenching his jaw.
"Wow what terrible customer service you have here." The nerdy guy jabbered angrily.
"Hey shouldn't you be heading back to your little nerd herd?" AJ retorted to the kid's comment.
"Oh is that how it is? Well at least I'll be making good money while you're working at McDonalds." The nerdy kid spat.
"Ok, hold on a second." Ben began "First off, do you even know what it is like to talk to a woman let alone be with one? Secondly, my friend here," Ben said gesturing to AJ "could throw you over the railing of a bridge so you're beautiful brain gets splattered all over the freeway, and lastly you can't be all that smart as you not only missed the sign that said they were out of FFXIII, but you didn't get the message when Guillermo yelled it for all the world to hear." Ben finished crossing his arms, satisfied with the verbal carpet bombing he had just administered. The nerdy guy, at a loss for words turned around and walked out of the store.
"I can't take it anymore; moron's like that come in here a hundred times a day." John expressed his displeasure adding a shake of his head.
"So come back and join us" offered Mid.
"That definitely sounds better than dealing with this crap day in and day out" grunted Guillermo in his continued displeasure about the nerdy guy.
"So it's settled then?" AJ questioned looking from Guillermo to John.
"Yeah, just let us finish out our shift. If we both leave now nobody will be manning the store so we kinda have to wait." John said, obviously not happy they had to wait.
"That's fine, we'll just go wander the mall until you guys are ready." Ben replied with a nod of his head. Mid, Ben, and AJ left the store to go wander the mall for a while.
All the while they had been walking, Ben suddenly found himself lost in thought. His mind played the gypsy woman's words over and over again in his head. What did she mean? The team had gone through so much already, what more could possibly be thrown at them? What worried him more is would they be able to handle it this time, it had torn them apart before… would it do so again?
AJ on the other hand, his mind was set on the near future; their next stop was getting Rebecca. He missed her dearly, and as much as he didn't like to admit it AJ felt something for the ex-S.T.A.R.S. medic. He would never say anything out loud as he had his own inking that Ben had feelings for Rebecca as well. AJ believed that Ben deserved it more than he did though. After all, with what happened to Regina and his girlfriend history Ben was not exactly doing too well.
"Yo guys, let's check this place out." Mid asked them as they passed a clothing store that had apparently opened recently. Something else however caught AJ's eyes: a jewelry store. His instincts screamed at him to go over to the store, and eventually he would give in.
"Hey guys I'll be right back, I'm gonna go check something out." AJ called to Ben and Mid as they parted ways for a bit.
About half an hour later they reconvened outside the clothing store Mid and Ben had gone into. Both Mid and Ben carried bags alluding to the fact they had made some purchases, AJ on the other hand appeared as if he had bought nothing.
"You guys ready to continue on?" asked Ben looking from Mid to AJ.
"Yeah let's go." AJ replied as Mid nodded in the positive.
The rest of John and Guillermo's shift was spent aimlessly walking the mall and grabbing a quick bite to eat at the food court. After their last couple hours on shift, Guillermo and John handed in their resignations and punched out for the final time. They found their other three team members sitting around a table at the food court munching on various Taco Bell snacks.
"I'm tellin' you guys, this new tactics workbook I have written up is pure gold. I just need the team to carry the plans out!" AJ was saying as John and Guillermo got within earshot.
"Yeah they sound good, I need some practice though I'm rusty" Said Mid in reply.
"Alright our shift is over, you guys ready?" questioned Guillermo as he and John approached the table.
The team members sitting at the table all got up and stretched a bit agreeing that they were ready to go. Team Light –now five members strong—left the mall and headed to AJ's jeep in the parking lot. All of them piling into the jeep, AJ started the Grand Cherokee up and pulled out of the parking space.
"Next on our list is Rebecca" said AJ as he maneuvered the jeep out of the parking lot and back onto the street. "My information says that she is currently working in a small diner to pay for the rent on her apartment. The diner is right across the street from her apartment so she shouldn't be all that hard to find, but seeing as it is a Sunday and she works as a waitress, it is most likely she'll be at the diner." AJ reasoned to the rest of the team.
The half an hour drive was full of random chatter and the team catching up with one another as things began to settle into normalcy again. It was as if the team never missed a beat; all the old jokes were still being made and all the same conversations were happening as they always had. Eventually the jeep pulled up by a ruddy looking diner across from a moderately sized apartment building.
"I think this is the place." Ben said looking back down at the sheet that AJ had printed out much earlier that morning.
Relatively sure that this was the place they were looking for, AJ pulled the jeep into the diner's desolate parking lot and parked in one of the many open spots. The team piled out of the vehicle and AJ locked the doors before they all headed inside. Upon entering the run down looking hole-in-the-wall diner, they didn't see almost anyone except for the cook who didn't seem to be paying attention. As the door closed behind them the bell jangled and a voice called out from the back.
"Just a minute!" the all too familiar female voice called. Sure enough, a few seconds later Rebecca Chambers rounded the corner leading to the back rooms. She was dressed in a grimy waitress uniform and though she was smiling, AJ knew her well enough to know when she was faking it.
"Hello how many today?" she asked with forced cheer. It was obvious that she was tired; she didn't recognize any of them right away let alone give them a second look.
"Hi, we should have a reservation under 'Team Light'? Right now we have five, but we were hoping to add a sixth to our party?" AJ said smiling widely.
"What?" Rebecca snapped around with more than just simple traces of surprise spread across her face. "What are you guys doing here?!" she exclaimed, a legitimate smile creeping onto her face. AJ smiled too, it was good to see her offer a real smile.
"Well, long story short AJ showed up at my door yesterday saying that Team Light was the best thing that had happened to all of us and that since then we'd all been unhappy. He told me he was restarting the team, so we've been driving around all day rounding up everyone to see if they'd be willing to come back." Ben said with a smile of his own.
"That would be absolutely wonderful!" she exclaimed happily. There was no hesitation what so ever in her answer, apparently she was less than happy being here. "Can I at least go change first?" she asked them; a true female. They all nodded and she scampered out of the diner across the street to her apartment.
"Hey AJ, even though you're driving do the same 'shotgun' rules apply as when Ben does?" asked Guillermo.
"Hmm…" AJ mused pondering the question for a moment. "…yeah I guess they do." He finished.
At those very words all the male Team Light members glared at each other before booking it out of the diner to the parking lot. AJ was quick to unlock the door with his remote as everyone was tearing at one another to be first. Soon the mass of people crashed into a gigantic do pile next to the jeep; all of them were fighting fiercely for the golden seat of shotgun.
"Wait!!" Mid yelled from amongst the dog pile and all the fighting ceased for a moment. "AJ what the hell are you doing in here, you have to drive!" Mid pointed out.
"Ooooooh… yeah you're right." AJ admitted as he pulled himself from the dog pile, his hair mussed and his shirt almost torn. Walking around to the other side of the jeep AJ hopped in, and the battle for shotgun continued. A few minutes later as the boys continued to brawl on the ground; Rebecca emerged from the apartment complex and headed over to the jeep. She opened up the passenger side door and pulled herself in.
"What are they all fighting about?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"Nothing anymore." AJ replied doing his best to suppress the wave of laughter that were threatening to erupt from him. AJ honked the horn and the guys on the ground all hopped up to see that the prize of their battle had been snatched from right under their noses. They all piled into the back seats mumbling and grumbling about losing shotgun; all AJ could do was laugh at them.
Throwing the jeep into reverse AJ pulled out of the parking spot, and then soon out into the street. Their final destination was to pick up Desi, the final Team Light member. Thankfully they would not have to do too much detective work as the last known information about Desi was within the past month. The only real problem –more of an inconvenience-- was that they had dive for four hours to get to where she now resided.
AJ pulled onto the thruway and off they went on their quest to finally reunite Team Light. Their day long adventure had progressed into the dark hours of night as they drove, and about a third of the way through their journey much of the team had fallen asleep in the back from pure boredom. Rebecca riding shotgun was the only one who had yet fallen asleep.
"So Rebecca, why were you working at that restaurant?" AJ asked in passing to break that dead silence.
"Well it had not been my first choice" She explained to him after a moment "I had tried other things first. I wanted to go to get more schooling so I could actually have a profession, but that requires valid identification and money. Then I tried to join the Peace Corps to help people in other countries, but they too require a way to validate my identity. The restaurant job was the only one that would hire me on the spot and pay in cash." Rebecca explained with a small frown.
"I'm sorry Rebecca" AJ sympathized with her; he understood how hard it must have been to make it even that far without so much as simple credentials. "At least you have the team back, have Ben back." AJ added. His tone did not carry the somewhat forlorn feeling reflected in his heart, he could not betray Ben. Ben was his captain, his friend, perhaps most of all; a brother to him when he had nobody left to call family. AJ knew Ben had something for Rebecca, and he wasn't going to get in the way.
"Yeah…" was all Rebecca had to say in reply. She leaned her head against the window and in a few minutes she was drifting off to sleep.
Not even ten minutes later AJ looked at the fuel gauge, it was nearing the quarter-tank mark and that meant that it was time to fill up. He pulled off at the next gas station and stopped at the pump. He was going to leave everyone as they were but Ben got out of the car a few seconds after he did giving a light yawn and a big stretch.
"Hey I thought you were sleeping?" AJ asked Ben as he pulled the cap off of the gas tank and grabbed the fuel pump.
"I was but I'm awake now. It's pretty comfortable back there if Rebecca is going to sleep." Ben offered.
AJ nodded and headed back around to the driver side door as the pump continued to run. He opened the door and whispered over to Rebecca.
"Rebecca, we still have a ways to go, and if you're tired you can move into the back where you would be more comfortable?" AJ whispered. She squirmed a bit mumbling something before agreeing and pulling open the door and stepping outside. Rubbing her eyes some she opened the door Ben had just come out of and hopped inside to go back to sleep.
"So, it looks like we're actually gonna do it. Team Light will live again." AJ said with a relieved sounding sigh.
"Yeah, but you started all this. That would mean you're captain now." Ben said, the only hint of melancholy about aforementioned statement a quick glint in his eye.
"No Ben, I started this because the team the way it was is what we all needed. You are my Captain and the only reason I was inducted into Team Light. So, that would mean that you stay Captain." AJ replied nonchalantly.
"Thanks AJ." Ben said after a moment's pause.
AJ used a debit card to pay for the gas on the machine before they both got back into the car and continued their ride down the thruway. All the while Ben and AJ were talking about various things in whispers: the old apartment, plans, income, and gaming. The hours passed quickly and soon they were nearing their destination. Coming into this new city the followed the directions AJ had printed out with his information sheet and eventually they came to the proper high rise apartment complex.
Parking in the street the team got out of the jeep and AJ threw some coins in the meter so they wouldn't get a ticket. Together they headed into the apartment complex and took the elevator up to the thirteenth floor. After a few minutes of scouring the halls, eventually they came to apartment 314 –the apartment that was supposed to be Desi's.
Ben gave a firm knock on the door and there was some shuffling and movement inside the apartment. The door would crack open to the point the interior chain lock would allow it and Desi would look out the crack.
"Wha-what are you guys doing here?" she asked rather surprised. Something seemed off about her just by the tone in her voice. She closed the door for a moment to unlock that chain and open the door fully. She looked exhausted with heavy bags beneath her eyes.
"We're here because we're reforming Team Light and we want you back!" Ben explained to her. Before she could answer however John spoke.
"Desi is everything alright?" he asked her sounding a bit concerned.
"Yeah something seems a bit off, is everything ok?" AJ seconded John's notion.
Desi paused longer than should have been necessary if everything was alright. She seemed rather less than the strong, and powerful Desi that everyone knew her to be.
"Come inside, I kind of have a problem…" Desi said somewhat forebodingly.